Debloated Driver causing ntoskrnl to spike

[00654]

Recently I debloated my driver, but I have noticed that randomly when playing games the "system" process will spike to around 20 for a while. I downloaded process explorer to see what causes the issue, and it says it is this. "ntoskrnl.exe!HalCalibratePerformanceCounter+0x1040". This issue goes away when reverting to normal drivers. Here are the tweaks I had checked off. If anyone has any clue how I can fix this please let me know. Thank you!

 

[Onasi]

This might sound obvious, but all of the Expert tweaks with the exception of MSI mode (if it’s not set by default without it) don’t actually benefit you significantly and you might wanna consider dropping them entirely. This might fix your issue by itself. Disabling MPO, unless it was giving you trouble before, is also unnecessary since Win 10/11 is kinda built on the assumption of it being available. In short, K.I.S.S.

 

[00654]

This might sound obvious, but all of the Expert tweaks with the exception of MSI mode (if it’s not set by default without it) don’t actually benefit you significantly and you might wanna consider dropping them entirely. This might fix your issue by itself. Disabling MPO, unless it was giving you trouble before, is also unnecessary since Win 10/11 is kinda built on the assumption of it being available. In short, K.I.S.S.

Hmm I see, I will just use the disable telemetry option only then. Thank you very much.

 

[Onasi]

Hmm I see, I will just use the disable telemetry option only then. Thank you very much.

Installer one - yes. Driver - unnecessary, NV doesn’t include telemetry in the driver itself nowadays, the option is legacy. There won’t be a telemetry service running whether or not you check it.

 

[00654]

Installer one - yes. Driver - unnecessary, NV doesn’t include telemetry in the driver itself nowadays, the option is legacy. There won’t be a telemetry service running whether or not you check it

Noted! Thanks for the info this clears up a lot. Cheers!

 

[W1zzard]

There won’t be a telemetry service running whether or not you check it.

Source? I thought they migrated it from a separate service into NVDisplay.Container?

 

[Onasi]

Source? I thought they migrated it from a separate service into NVDisplay.Container?

That’s… exactly what I meant? There is no separate service. I have no idea whether the Container telemetry actually even works (I ran the non-NVCleanstall driver for a year as an experiment and checking my firewall and router logs it never seemed to call home or anything) and from my understanding even you don’t actually recommend gutting the Container. My “no Telemetry service” was strictly in terms of the “more processes” debloating which OP wanted, seemingly.
I could have worded myself better though, I agree.

Edit: I have seen speculations that the telemetry component is only active when GFE is also installed and is completely inert on the bare driver + Control Panel install. No idea whether that’s true, but as I mentioned above, my anecdotal experience kinda seems to point that way too.

 

[W1zzard]

and checking my firewall and router logs it never seemed to call home or anything

Ah that's good info, but don't you see the traffic for the NGX library updates when a game is launched?

Disable Telemetry in NVCleanstall sets "NvSupportTelemetry = 0" in the driver installation scripts

 

[Onasi]

Ah that's good info, but don't you see the traffic for the NGX library updates when a game is launched?

Disable Telemetry in NVCleanstall sets "NvSupportTelemetry = 0" in the driver installation scripts

Oh, good to know. I will check the NGX traffic on game launch thing, this should be interesting. What does it update, potentially? Isn’t the library an Experience feature? If the driver runs no GFE, then I am not sure what it would even send or receive.

 

[W1zzard]

Definitely some DLSS profiles, these can be updated without GFE

 

[Onasi]

@W1zzard
So, reporting. Don't have much installed in terms of games right now, but tried several things. Overwatch 2 (via BNet), Scarlet Nexus and Pathfinder: WotR (via Steam). Each was launched on cold boot after 5 minutes were taken to let Windows settle down. None of these triggered any network activity aside from the obvious Blizzard and Valve processes (OW itself, Agent32 from Blizz and SteamClient and steamwebhelper process from Valve). Nothing NVidia marked. All these games do have a default profile in the NVCP, but none of them use DLSS, so there is that. My current GPU (a 1070) is also not DLSS compatible, so might not even trigger a check. The driver is 537.58 installed via NVCleanstall as just the Driver + Physx, installer telemetry turned off, no expert tweaks applied apart from MSI mode enforcement.
I have absolutely no idea whether any conclusions can be drawn from that, but hey, guess there is some semi-useful info.

 

[W1zzard]

but none of them use DLSS, so there is that. My current GPU (a 1070) is also not DLSS compatible

Slightly useful data, but not useful unless you test on an RTX GPU in games with RT/DLSS

 

[Onasi]

*shrug* In such a case I imagine one would not mind the telemetry (if this can even count as one) since getting fresh DLSS profiles would be actually useful and not an irritant. It's a moot point. Someone with an RTX GPU can try that and see what will ping the network and how often.

 

[Deleted member 57642]

On RTX cards - does connect for DLSS profile updates with nvngx_update - shortly after installing the driver, even if Telemetry is disabled.

Furthermore, have only Control Panel installed (no Geforce Experience), telemetry and any setting which requires an internet connection unchecked/disabled - yet, NVDisplay.Container - still connects to the internet on a daily basis through the following IP 152.199.20.80 - which is basically a Content Distribution Network (CDN) - or the middle man (if you will).

...which i have blocked (that's one way to disable Telemetry ).

 

[umeng2002]

A binary blob can do anything. Including connect to the internet.